A collection of scriptural meditations from Saints and Fathers of the Church.

Do not be ashamed to reveal your scabs to your spiritual director. Be prepared as well to accept from him disgrace for your sins, so that by being disgraced, you might avoid eternal shame.

Self-accusation before God is something that is very necessary for us; and humility of heart is extremely advantageous in our lives, above all at the time of prayer. For prayer requires great attention and needs a proper awareness, otherwise it will turn out to be unacceptable and rejected, and `it will be turned back empty' to our bosom.

Make the body serve the commandments, keeping it so far as possible free from sickness and sensual pleasure.

Spiritual reading and prayer purify the intellect, while love and self-control purify the soul's passionate aspect.

If you are not willing to repent through freely choosing to suffer, unsought sufferings will providentially be imposed on you.

A wise man is one who pays attention to himself and is quick to separate himself from all defilement.

The person who is unaffected by the things of this world loves stillness; and he who loves no human thing loves all men.

A man who submits to the statutes of the fathers, reaches his goal before he has made a single step.

Do not neglect the practice of the virtues; if you do, your spiritual knowledge will decrease, and when famine occurs you will go down into Egypt (Genesis 41:57, 46:6).

Patient endurance is the soul's struggle for virtue; where there is struggle for virtue, self-indulgence is banished.

Listlessness is an apathy of soul; and a soul becomes apathetic when sick with self-indulgence.

Self-love -- that is, friendship for the body -- is the source of evil in the soul.

Just as desire and rage multiply our sins, so self-control and humility erase them.

Control your stomach, sleep, anger, and tongue, and you will not 'dash your foot against a stone.'

Struggle until death to fulfill the commandments: purified through them, you will enter into life.

Long-suffering and readiness to forgive curb anger; love and compassion wither it.

The greatest weapons of someone striving to lead a life of inward stillness are self-control, love, prayer, and spiritual reading.

Self-control and strenuous effort curb desire; stillness and intense longing for God wither it.

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Archangel Michael Orthodox Church
5025 E. Mill Rd
Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147

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[email protected]
440-526-5192 (Phone)